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This list was compiled by the sensations evoked by summer---the timeless kind that may or may not actually exist any more, but hey, maybe some of these reads will inspire a timeless afternoon. These were all choices that brought a smile when remembering reading them in the first place, and they were usually the first thought of by those in our family. They range from very young on up to teens....

I finally found a topic I felt I could post about without getting all caught up in nerves, in details-- an open call for summer reading books for kids. I spent a week thinking about it, thinking of how different we all are in our clan, and what did we find to be perennial favorites to read over the years? I scoured our bookshelves, I thought of all the sensations arising when I thought of summer, I thought of my title---Kids Summer Reading, the Flop on…

I've been watching a lot of reactions to the flotilla incident, particularly here on the OS, and it's making me realize that there are a lot of things people just don't get. Some of this has to do with Israel, some of it has to do with Jews in general, and some has to do with what I think is an overestimation of the influence of the Holocaust; it's important, just not completely central.

A lot of economists and business people will tell you that regulation is the enemy of business, that a free market left alone functions optimally and that government invariably screws it up - the more regulation, the worse. According to this model, the private sector is inherently efficient while government is inherently inefficient. In an awful lot of circles, this is dogma, accepted as truth by definition.

A couple of weeks ago, an online friend forwarded me an e-mail stating that Bank of America and Wells Fargo were offering low-limit credit cards to illegal aliens (without SS numbers) and that we should boycott those banks for this reason. I disagreed and replied with an e-mail entitled "Why Are You So Concerned With Illegal Immigration?" After reading her reaction, I realized I was kind of proud…